My soldier is taking leave next month, and will be left with only 6 days of leave left. I've never written, nor have I seen, one of these counselings for having less than 10 days of leave left due to the amount being taken.

I'm not sure why you would give someone a counseling statement for having less than 10 days of leave saved. The soldier earned the leave, and deserves to take it. Not to mention in two months he'll have ten days again. 6 days of leave is a whole work week, there are tons of people that would be estatic to have that much time off available. If you are going to write a statement, just make sure that you are doing it to remind said soldier that he is getting low on leave time, and if he uses it all he won't be able to take leave, (obviously he already knows that) and as his first line leader you would like for your soldiers to carry a balance of at least 10 days, But you should also have written that in the inital counseling of your soldier for all of your soldiers if that is the case. But unless there is some rule in AR 600-8-10 that I've never heard of.. Am I missing something?

Taking charge of subordinates required understanding. Counseling is just a way to develop or in most cases informing. Why? any Soldier should get counseled concerning leave and pass. Because you are a Soldier 24/7 and leave may be seen as a "special pass"; try to understand it that way; you must abide by all rules and regulations while on leave. CDRs have the right to denied your (Special request = excess leave) under certain circumstances. May have to go higher base on command guidance - There are many factors you must take in consideration for leave approval. As a leader, you are still responsible for your Soldier while on leave; failure to report back to work by ebd date could lead to (AWOL; if confirmed (UCMJ), then BARRED - from then Soldier can get kicked out of the service. It's depend on your command, but they have to process your Soldier under AWOL status, just like APFT/weight failure (?) - Remember! individuals may add to this cause by getting in trouble while on leave. To save your career as a leader, your Soldier need to understand the process above, and stay in touch if any situation arise and required extension (Approval or head back!). Deployment/ mobilization and training may lead to extension denial and immediate return to PDY. It seems awkward, but possible...So, many reasons for counseling ...this is just a start

I've gotten that exact counseling before. Some Chains of Command require with the leave form if requesting leave that takes you under the ten day limit. I was even in one unit that wouldn't let you take leave if you went under ten days unless it was E-leave. I'll try to look for it, but I think the counseling just stated the following. "By requesting this leave you are going under the 10 days of accrued leave. Be mindfull that if this leave should be approved, once used you will have very little leave left. Should something come up and you need to request leave in the near future you could possible be turned down due to lack of accumulated leave. Altough there are circumstances where leave can be advanced SM should be aware that not allways will it be approved." That is pretty much what my couns. sheet said. Hope this helps.

I've had to do a counseling for one of my soldiers when he dipped below 10 days, basically my platoon sergeant said to write it to say that since he is going below 10 days that in case of emergency leave, the army is not obligated to give him leave.

I know that you can go into the negative of your accrued leave but its entirely up to your chain of command as going into the negative is not a very good practice and frowned upon.

The purpose of the counseling is to document the informing of a soldier that because they are requesting leave that would reduce their leave days balance to below 10 days, any situation that would prescribe emergency leave for a soldier with fewer than 10 days leave following the already taken leave would only be approved if the circumstances were categorized as "locale parentis." Locale parentis refers to an event taking place within the established maximum distance allowed soldiers from their duty station when not on pass or approved leave.

Here's an example of why their leave request warrants a counseling:

Your soldier (we'll call him Joe) is stationed at Ft. Drum, NY, and by SOP, his unit allows him to travel up to 250 miles from post when not on pass or leave. Joe requests leave that would make his remaining balance of leave 3 days. He's approved and takes the charged leave. Shortly after returning, Joe's uncle, Jim-Bob (who lives in Oregon), dies suddenly. Now normally, Joe would be able to take chargeable emergency leave to his uncle's funeral. But now, since Joe only has 3 leave days, he is not approved for emergency leave because the distance Joe would have to travel will be outside the 250-mile maximum allowed travel distance. Now Joe is sad because no one told him that this was the risk he took when he signed up for leave.

Now if Joe's uncle lived within 250 miles of Ft. Drum, NY, Joe could have taken chargeable emergency leave with no issues.

Soldiers need to be made aware of this, as it is a common SOP for many units (not all, of course). And a counseling is the perfect way to document that conversation.

the term I posted is NOT "locale parentis." It is "in loco parentis." And it technically does not refer only to the unit's travel distance restrictions, but also is affected by whether or not the soldier in question is required by law to care for someone's final arrangements.

In other words, even if a soldier warrants emergency leave for a family member inside the 250-mile radius, he/she may not be granted it unless they are legally the sole responsible person for conducting final arrangements.